Tuesday, June 9, 2015

The next morning, we returned to the hippo carcass to see
how the hyenas had fared. Hyenas are never ones to turn down a feast, so there
were still dozens of hyenas feeding at the hippo. They’d done some serious
damage, however – the carcass was completely opened and the majority of the
internal organs and other soft bits had been consumed.

As you can see, the hyenas are all covered in a uniform
coating of hippo slime, making it very difficult to ID them. Even the little
ones seems to have gotten inside the hippo overnight and rolled around for a bit.Couple that with numerous
alien hyenas, and we struggled our way through IDing that morning. When Heidi
typed up her transcription, it turned out that we had seen 34 Happy Zebra hyenas and
15 aliens within those few morning hours that we spent at the carcass.

What was interesting to us was the relative peace between the
Happy Zebra hyenas and the aliens at this carcass. Apart from the typical
feeding aggressions, there was little to show that two different clans were
harvesting the same food source. Even more intriguing was that the Happy Zebra
hyenas allowed the alien males to feed in peace, but the alien females
received far more aggressions.

When we returned that evening, the carcass was
decimated.All that remained was a pool
of hippo slime, a piece of skin, and the hippo skull itself.

Hyenas searching for left-over scraps in a puddle of hippo slime.

Euchre chowing down on some hippo skin.

An alien female gnawing at the hippo skull.

Rum Gone feeding on the hippo skull.

So here’s the final score:

The lions had control of the carcass for 48 hours, and
managed to eat part of the face off.The hyenas had control of the carcass for 24 hours, and
consumed the entire thing.
I know who I'd bet on in a hippo-eating contest!

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